Hari ini adalah hari terakhir saya bergelar guru. This is the (long) speech I gave to my kids before I left: My dear boys and girls, After today, you will never hear my annoying voice asking you to write 300 word essay or get into your groups to complete your exercises. You will never see me at the canteen asking you to pick up your plate and put it in the basin. You will no longer get asked to tuck in your shirt properly. You can no longer lepak at my table in the teacher’s room while eating my Daim and watch YouTube videos. And for Najmi, he can no longer piggyback on me—all in which I believe is a good news to you. Phew, he’s gone! Sadly for me, I have to leave you. I can no longer walk to your class and teach you. I can no longer enjoy the silly things that came out from you. I will no longer get lollipops, Apollos and Cloud Nines from you. I can no longer run with you during PJK. I can no longer wake up in the morning all excited and looking forward to go to school and do something with you and most importantly, I can no longer see you after this. But before you jump in enjoyment and celebrate this freedom, I want to leave you with a few reminders. Although in a few months (and I am not surprised if it only takes hours), you will probably have forgotten who I am, I hope what I am about to tell you will help you to see this world in a different light. If you havent realise it already, your uniforms, your teachers, your books, your exercises and exam questions, your food at the canteen, your chairs and tables in the class; they are saying something—They are saying that all of you are equal and none of you are being given better or worse than the others. The only differences that all of you have are who you are and who you will become. To make sense, your only differences are how you learn, what you gain, what you give and what you will produce. You may not see it now, but you’ll see this when you hold in your hands the examination results—then congratulatory letters from universities or colleges—then offer letters from companies or organisations. To be able to do that, you must continue to learn. You have to work harder and you must treat everyone with kindness and respect. Do not stop learning. Always ask questions even if your friends laugh at you. Always seek answers and always read. Read to nourish your mind. Read to feed your brain and soul. Read to know the beauty of the world and that you are only a small part of it. Always try to improve yourself. D is not good enough even if everyone in your class gets D. C is not good compared to B. Do not settle for anything less than what you hope for. Please don’t make failure as a norm is your life. If your friends failed, it does not mean that you must fail too. I hope that you have, and if you have not—you will realise, that knowledge is important. I want you to know that this world is bigger than you. It is bigger than your friends or your lover. It is larger than this town, and it is certainly bigger than racing at night or going to the mall. I want you to think not only about your friends and your life today, but your friends and your life in the future, that your journey is still far for you to abuse the gift of youth by wasting time, money and opportunities. Tell yourself that religion and high moral ground are important. Do not do things that you cannot come back from. Please take control and make the full use out of the next 4 years that you are in school because it is responsible for your future and the rest of your life. After you leave high school, driving yourself wherever its consequences take you; no matter how much you wish you could have done better, studied harder, gotten better results, planned properly and chosen your path correctly—you cannot come back to school. You cannot reverse time and wish to repeat it all again. Whatever the ramification is, that’s the result of the work you put into the times you are in school. I am not going to scare you, but the harsh reality is, if you fail in high school, is it highly possible that you will fail for the rest of your life, unless failure is what you aim for or if you know how to rise from it. It will determine whether you can get into university (or colleges or other tertiary educations) or not, then, it will determine your job, your salary and your life, which later, it will determine your personal life; where will you go and who will you meet, and soon, it will determine how your children is going to live their life and if you fail to see the importance now and work harder, you will regret it for the rest of your life. The realisation to succeed came early for me and I want the same for you so you don’t have to go through this when you have failed sometime in the future. In fact, I do not want you to fail at all. The key is to know who you want to be and who you are right now. In order to become who you want to be, you have to list down the skills you already possessed, and the skills you dont but you need to have in order to achieve your goal. Then ask yourself this: Am I willing to do whatever it takes to master the skills? If you do, then start from now. If you dont, you need to start looking for a new route and other plans or create a different goal. Being successful is not about the number of As, your social status or the amount of money you earn annually. Being successful means not giving up. Being successful is about being the best you can be in any fields that you choose to venture. Being successful means you have used yourself wholly to benefit other people. If you are a policeman, be an honest, fair and well-disciplined policeman and use yourself to make this world a better place. That is what success means. All I want, and all I hope for each and every one of you is nothing but success, in whatever endeavours you choose. Whether you are successful as lawyers or doctors, as stewardesses or teachers, as cashiers or drivers, as mechanics or engineers, or as businessman or nurses; I will always be proud of you because I have seen you at the beginning of your journey. Above all, I wish you the best and good luck. Thank you for having me for these few months. I do not know how much you have gained from my classes but one thing I am sure of is that you have taught me more that I could have imagined. You have given me an eternity of experience within a few months and for that, I thank all of you. Best of luck!
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 12:04:41 +0000
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